India-UK flight services to resume from 8 Jan, says Hardeep Puri

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said that flights between India and the United Kingdom will resume partially from 8 January.

“It has been decided that flights between India and UK will resume from January 8, 2021,” the minister said in a tweet. “Operations till 23 Jan will be restricted to 15 flights per week each for carriers of the two countries to & from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru & Hyderabad only. @DGCAIndia will issue the details shortly.”

Last month, these services were suspended to stop the spread of a mutant Covid-19 strain which was recently discovered in the UK.

Several countries, including India, had suspended flight services to the UK. The suspension commenced with effect from 11.59 pm on 22 December. Initial decision was to suspend flights till 31 December. However, in the wake of increasing cases of the new strain, it was decided to extend the temporary suspension of flights to & from the UK till 7 January.

Prior to the suspension, over 60 flights per week were being operated between UK and India. Airlines like Vistara, Air India, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways were operating flights between the two countries.